This application is to request funds to support the travel expenses of 14 US and 3 Canadian scientist as invited speakers to an international workshop on Mitochondria: Evolution, Genomics, Homeostasis and Pathology, to be held from May 9, 2001 to May 12, 2001, in Martina Franca, Italy. The meeting is one of a long-standing series of Bari conferences, which have traditionally dealt with various aspects of mitochondrial biology. The meeting is being organized jointly by the Principal investigator and by Dr. Cecilia Saccone, from the University of Bari. The objective of the meeting is to bring together internationally recognized experts and interested investigators from North America and Europe, whose primary research interests are not only in the basic principles of mitochondrial physiology and molecular biology, but in areas such as aging, oxidative stress, apoptosis and neuromuscular diseases-problems which have fundamental links to perturbations in mitochondrial function. The meeting will have three major themes: 1) genomics and the evolution of mitochondria and mitochondrial DNA. Included will be discussions of the development and use of data bases representing compendia of genes encoding mitochondrial proteins and the cis and trans acting elements controlling mitochondrial biogenesis and inheritance in organisms from yeast to man; 2) mitochondrial homeostasis, which includes nuclear-mitochondrial interactions, the control of mitochondrial biogenesis, expression of mitochondrial genomes, and the inheritance of mitochondria and mitochondrial DNA; 3) mitochondrial pathologies-how oxidative stress, alterations in mitochondrial function and attendant alterations in metabolism may be related to the process of aging, apoptosis and the manifestation of neuromuscular disorders due to mitochondrial DNA mutations, rearrangements and segregational defects.